December Update

We started out December with our first visitor to Arizona! One of my best friends from college, Jen, came to see us. We drove up to Hoover Dam and did the whole tour and then headed to Las Vegas. You know you are pregnant when you are back in your hotel room by 8pm!


Jen and me after the Hard hat tour!


Me at the Dam.

John finished finals and got to Arizona just in time for moving day! We got into our house mid-December. It was so nice for both of us for finally get out of Temporary Housing and into our home.

We loaded up the car and grabbed the dogs to head to Texas for Christmas. We realized very quickly that it is ALOT farther to Texas from Arizona than it was when we lived in New Mexico. After over 1000 miles and 4 fast food meals later, we pulled into Glen Rose. I am pretty sure the dogs were equally happy to arrive!



Lily acting as co-pilot on the Road Trip!


Tessa is wondering...Are we there yet???

We hadn't planned on having a white Christmas in Texas, but Mother Nature had other plans! We pulled into town on the 23rd and it was about 70 degrees. The very next day it started snowing and blanketed the whole area. Good thing we packed lots of layers!





All of my family lives relatively close to my parents so it was really nice to spend time with all my aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc. It wouldn't be a trip to Glen Rose if my sister didn't coordinate a game night. The Girls are still the reigning Taboo Champs.


Checking out the Loot in our Stockings!


John with some great bed head!

Since this was the last time we would be in Texas before Baby Clem arrived, my family hosted a Baby Shower. It was fun to see so many people from my family as well as many of my HS and College friends. Everyone was super generous and our little boy will have lots of goodies when he arrives in March.





Me with 4 of my Best Friends from College!

We ended the year early---in fact, I was asleep by 7:30pm. December always flies by, but the holidays are always a great reminder of how blessed we are with such wonderful friends and family.

November Update

John started off the month with a Boy's Trip to Chicago. Two of John's very good friends from his deployments to Iraq got together in Chicago. They did a little sightseeing, but mostly just a lot of catching up. John had a great time and it was a nice break from school!

I stayed home for a girls weekend with the dogs. I am quite certain John had more fun than me...especially since I live on the third floor. A pregnant lady waddling down three flights of stairs with two dogs...not attractive!


John, Beau and Nick on Lake Michigan

We started the month of November with some big news. On the 9th, we closed on our new home in the Phoenix area. The owners leased it back for a month so we were not able to move in yet, but it was really nice to have all the paperwork done. We went straight from our closing to the ultrasound to find out we were having a Baby Boy. The Ultrasound Tech told us she was 100% confident so we can start prepping!


Baby Boy Clem

My company had a furlough the week of Thanksgiving so I flew to Albuquerque to stay with John since he still had school. Since John is in Temporary Housing as well, we had fun prepping our Thanksgiving meal with limited kitchen supplies.

John carving our Turkey with a not so sharp knife!

No casserole dishes in the Apartment so we resorted to Stove Top.

Our Elegant Thanksgiving Table



The dogs enjoyed a special feast as well!

The weekend after Thanksgiving one of my co-workers in Albuquerque was married. Amy has worked for MDA about 2 years and her new husband volunteered at a lot of MDA events with John so it was fun for us to see them tie the knot!



Us with Amy and Aaron--the newlyweds

That's about all we could fit in for November!

October Update

We started the beginning of October with a roadtrip to Phoenix to move me into my temporary corporate housing. The place is actually pretty homey and will be my home through December. The only downside it is on the third floor, which was really bad for John when he was moving my stuff in.

We took the opportunity to do some house hunting while we were both in town. We found a great home in a suburb of Phoenix and made an offer, which was accepted! We don't close until November, but we are excited it was so easy to find a place that we both loved.

Most of October was spent prepping for the sale of our home in Albuquerque. Poor John was having to do most of that alone since I had already moved to Phoenix. All our stuff was loaded up on the 16th and the house closed on the 22nd. We are officially not Homeowners! Here are some pics from moving weekend.



Tessa pooped on Moving Day enjoying the Double Decker Bed!



John cuddling with the Mutts at the hotel!



Last night at our House on the Blow Up mattress.


John is made the trip to Phoenix the last two weekends of October. He loaded the dogs up and made the 6.5 hour trip to my apartment. It has been fun to have some time to explore the city together. We found a great dog park by where we are going to live. It has a nice lake where the dogs can go swimming in which they absolutely love. The dogs had no trouble making themselves cozy as you can see below!



Tessa making herself at home!


John also found out this month that he is officially accepted into ASU, which he will start in January. Go Sun Devils!



The last weekend of October we celebrated John's 31st Birthday a few days early! We started at Cabela's so John could spend some B-day money. We went out to dinner and then headed over to one of my co-worker's house for a Halloween party. Here are some pics.




A quick baby update---we hit the halfway point at the end of October. Everything is going smooth and I have been feeling really good so far. We haven't found out the sex yet since I had to change Doctors from Albuquerque to Phoenix. We should find out in November.

That's about it for our month!

September Update

We got to kick off our September with our 13 week ultrasound. As you can tell, it definitely resembles a baby now. It is crazy the difference 7 weeks can make since our last ultrasound. The baby was moving a lot, which was really fun for us to see. The baby was throwing its entire body in the air and John said he knew where they got that from. If any of you have ever slept in the same bed with me, you know exactly what John was talking about.

As many of you know, John and I love to see Brad Paisley live. He puts on such a great show. We were especially excited for his concert in September since Dierks was the opening act. Neither one of them disappointed!

Mid-month we got the most unexpected news---after only about a month on the market, we had an offer on our house. We had planned for the scenario when our house didn't sell but we forgot to plan for the scenario if it did. We had to get cracking to find John a place to live in Albuquerque so he could finish out the semester. Then we had to get started house hunting in Phoenix! Needless to say, September was a blur!

August Update

Our August started with the very exciting news that we are going to have a baby! We had our first ultrasound at the very beginning of August, which was so fun for both of us. I have attached the video we got of the heartbeat from our visit. This was from Week 7 so as you can see the baby has a lot of developing to do. Our due date is March 17th. I have being feeling pretty good. A little queasy and only a couple bouts of morning sickness.

The second week of August we had some visitors. One of John's close friends from his time in Germany, Jarrod, just returned from Iraq this summer. Jarrod and his girlfriend, Laura, are roadtripping through the US and made a stop in Albuquerque. It had been over a year since John has seen Jarrod so he was really excited to to see him. They took the tram to Sandia and hiked some of the trails up there. John also made sure they were treated to some great New Mexican Green Chile at one of our favorite breakfast spots. I finally got to join them when I returned from a work trip. It was great just to hang out at the house and catch up.

Laura, Jarrod and John at the top of Sandia.

The next weekend we headed out to Southern California to visit John's family. It was great to see both sets of grandparents. We hadn't seen them in about a year so it was fun to spend some great quality time together. We shared some great meals and even a game of putt putt at John's all-time favorite course!

We decided to take a trip up to the river the next weekend so John could get some fishing in and I could do some reading. The dogs decided to take a dip in the river as well. John forgot his wader boots so he was fishing in some COLD water. I was pretty sure he was going to get frostbite on his feet. I guess that is what you do for the love of the sport!

Teamwork fetching the stick!

August has been super busy for both of us. John has started his fall semester, which has a pretty difficult line up including Calculus II, Physics and Computer Programming. With the transfer to Arizona, I have been spending about 2-3 days there every week right now. Life has been a little crazy, but I guess that is just getting us ready for our new addition!

July Update

We started July celebrating our 4th Wedding Anniversary! Since we got married around the 4th of July, we decided to take advantage of the long weekend. We headed to San Diego to celebrate and had such a great time. We did most of the touristy things including the Zoo, Balboa Park, The Gaslamp Quarter, Seaport Village, USS Midway and a Padres game.

On our anniversary we went to a really fun place called the Gaslamp Strip Club, which is a cool steak place in the the Gaslamp area and should not be confused with an actual Strip Club. You order the type of meat you would like and then they have grill stations all over the restaurant where you can season and grill up your entree. All the sides are family style and the food was so incredibly good!

For the 4th, we got tickets to watch the Big Bay Fireworks from the deck of the USS Midway. You could see five of the exact same firework shows being displayed simultaneously. Very Cool!

Here are some of our favorite pics from the weekend...



San Diego Zoo...We saw our first Panda!!!

4th of July at The Del

Soaking up some rays on the 4th

USS Midway

John sharing his patriotism on the 4th

Padres Game

Great view of the city!

The next weekend I celebrated my 32nd Birthday! I kept it low key since I am getting up there. John indulged me on a Chick Flick and a great dinner.

Mid-July we headed to Texas to see my family. We got to spend time with all my grandparents, my parents, my brother, my sister and her husband. It was great to see everyone since the last time we were all together was the Marshall wedding! It wouldn't be a Texas trip without a boys fishing trip with my dad. George caught his first fish in two years!!! We lit off a few left over fireworks and ate great home cooked food.

George's Fish!!!



We Love Sparklers!!!

The last weekend in July, John's dad and his family came to see us. We had a great time seeing them. We played Rockband, took the Tram to the top of the mountain, grilled out and just caught up!

The Whole Family at the Top of Sandia.

This month has been full of surprises including the news that we will be moving to Phoenix! My company is doing some restructuring, which led to them adding Arizona to my territory. With that addition of territory, it just made sense to move my office to Arizona. I will be moving in October and John will be heading out when he finishes the semester in December. Viva Grand Canyon State!

That is about all we could squeeze into July!

June Update

June was pretty low key for the Clems! Here is a quick update from our month.

John went on a boy's fishing and camping trip in Northern California with his Dad, his brother, and Renata's brother, Petr. Even though they got some storms, John really enjoyed the weekend with the guys-(and I enjoyed a weekend of chick flicks and pedicures.) A couple of pics from his weekend are below.

Many of you are familiar with the baseball player, Manny Ramirez, who tested hot for performance enhancing drugs a couple of months ago. He had a 50 game suspension from the LA Dodgers and had to go play for the Dodger's Farm Team, which is here in Albuquerque. The town went crazy for the four games Manny was playing including the Clem's. We went to the Thursday night game and right before the game was suppose to start it started to rain-alot. We pushed through so we could see Manny and right before the game started an hour late, they announced that Manny was not going to play due to the field conditions. Guess the Dodgers did not want their money maker hurt!

John and I waiting in the rain with the rest of the crazy people!

No Manny, but a beautiful Rainbow

Most of you know of John's obsession with Jack in the Box, and many of you have had the task of driving us to one when we come to visit. John and I have not lived in a state with a Jack in the Box for close to 10 years so you can imagine the joy of the Clem's when a location opened here in Albuquerque this month. We ate there twice in the first week!

John's first tacos in Albuquerque...greasy deliciousness!

John is still studying a lot...he is taking Chemistry and Calculus this summer so that is occupying a lot of his time. He also just got a work study at the Veteran's office at UNM so he is staying really busy. June was busy at work for me as well. MDA's Summer Camp in my area is in June. This is an incredible week for the kids with muscle disease where being in a wheelchair is the norm. Although this week is magical, it can also be a little stressful for me to make sure all kids get home safe and sound. All went smooth and I have recovered from the long week!

That is about it for June!

May Update

I must admit that a good part of May was spent recovering from a very busy April! We stayed in Albuquerque all month, which was really nice. Here is a snapshot of a few things we did this month.

We started off the month Texas style by going to a Pat Green Concert. When I was in college, I went to many Pat Green shows. He is a Texas Country artist and puts on a great show. He came to a small venue in Albuquerque the first Sunday in May. I must admit it made me miss home...these Albuquerqueans can't properly appreciate all the Texas songs! Although John is from California, he has been back to the great state of Texas enough that he does appreciate it.

A few days later, we went to the Dave Matthews concert. Albuquerque has a fun outdoor venue that is so nice with the beautiful New Mexico nights. I had no idea the following Dave Matthews still had...his fans are fiercely loyal...including our next door neighbors! Although we do not measure up to Dave's other fans, we still had such a great time. Since John has gotten into the guitar, he has a new appreciation for great musicians and these guys really delivered. An average song lasted about ten minutes! Here are some pics from the evening.

Memorial Day weekend was very low key. John fished while I read and we grilled a lot. We had one productive morning when we finished planting all the flowers! Tessa and Lily are showcasing some our work below!

The last weekend in May we had some wonderful friends come see us! Many of you know that I have worked for MDA for almost 9 years and in that time I have been blessed with some amazing friends. Kim and Tonya are absolutely at the top of that list. They have become such wonderful friends of ours including Tonya's husband Ryan! We all hadn't been together in a while since we live in different states. It was so much fun catching up! We enjoyed a tram ride, tapas, board games, Rock Band and Ryan's great burgers! Here are a couple of pics from the weekend!

Kim, Tonya and me

Ryan and Tonya with John and me

Kim took her first rock band experience very seriously!

Summers are beautiful in New Mexico...upper eighties and no humidity...so feel free to come see us!